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closeDEMING — People who know of Mount Baker coach Ron Lepper’s intense love for wrestling might find this hard to believe, but daughter Alex is a more enthusiastic high school wrestler than he was.
Lepper’s girls (3-0) appreciated the significance after they claimed a 48-6 victory over Burlington-Edison before a large, vocal crowd, which showed up early Thursday to see the first girls’ dual in Whatcom County history before the boys’ meet.
“Football was my real game in high school at Cashmere,” said Ron Lepper, who didn’t become an avid wrestler until he met an Olympic medalist at Simon Fraser University and joined the team. “I did wrestling in high school because it was expected, but when I graduated, I never thought I would see a mat again.”
His daughter, however, was in her glory and said she couldn’t have been happier.
“The crowd was awesome,” said Alex Lepper as fellow seniors Ashlee Phy and Katie Newgard, and junior Angel Ortiz exulted after all scored pins.
They are the four girls who have been with the program since its start when the seniors were sophomores.
“That’s kind of the whole point,” Alex said. “It’s about time we got as much support as the boys.”
Ortiz, fourth at state last year, said the crowd motivated the girls, who scored six pins in seven on-the-mat decisions.
“That crowd made it so much more fun,” Ortiz said. “It sure made me work harder.”
Phy, who won a title last year in the first official girls’ state meet, improved to 21-0 this season with her 21st pin.
“Oh, I want it badly,” she said of a second championship. “I just want to motivate other girls to wrestle.”
Newgard, fourth at state last season, said the thought of making history was her highlight.
“And we’ll be making more history Saturday when we wrestle in the first Girls’ Dream Duals,” she said, referring to competition in Spokane.
Sixteen girls, including seven freshmen, have gratified both Leppers by being gritty enough to last the season, including freshman Chloe Grafwallner and Rosy Rosas, both of whom also won by pin against Burlington. Baker’s Karina Rosas and Samantha Mount won by forfeit.
Ron Lepper said that if anyone had told him when he was as high school senior in 1981 that he would someday coach girls’ wrestling, he wouldn’t have believed it.
“I would have said there’s no way,” he said. “You didn’t even see one girl wrestling then, anywhere. When girls first came out at Mount Baker some years back (one at a time), I didn’t encourage it, and we didn’t make it easy for them.
“Now I can see always coaching girls. I like it how girls don’t come in like they know everything, and how much they want to learn.”
The Baker girls said they’ll never forget the boys’ team starring down opposing boys the first time they walked into another school.
“Our boys walked us in and they wouldn’t let anyone say anything to us,” Alex Lepper said.
Alex’s younger siblings — Zak Lepper, already on Baker’s boys’ varsity; eighthgrade sister Raney and sixthgrade sister Maxx — all want to wrestle.
“I really want to wrestle because it looks like so much fun,” said Maxx while cheering madly for each girl.
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